I also made the 'mistake' of attacking the enemy - he was doing nothing the first few goes - I knocked out an armour and an infantry unit on the left, and the artillery unit in the centre (lucky!), but i lost all of my cavalry and my armour to lose -an interesting game!

The French forces made the mistake of trying to take the fight to the enemy. A tough battle was waged on the French left flank and which devastated two Panzer units. But the construction of the pontoon bridge and a strong push through the French right flank allowed easy passage through the exit hex.

Game 10 of a live Vassal FALL GELB GRAND CAMPAIGN - CROSSING the MEUSE - Game # 1

Johan got an extra artillery -- placed on the German right and sandbag from his Reserve Rolls. I got an Elite Tank which I placed on my left.

On his first turn Johan placed a bridge in the center near Bouillon. The early game saw strafing runs by ME-109s which helped kill off two of the two of the fortified house infantry.

I had advanced off my baseline and my elite tank killed off the panzer on my left although my armor suffered 2 hits. My other tank advanced in the center and dinged the panzer on the hill.

After losing my left cavalry unit I played TFH and rolled orders for my two tanks and two infantry. My elite tank moved up on my left and I gambled on a 2d attack vs the baseline arty on the other side of the river while my center tank crossed the bridge to attack the 2 fig panzer on the hill with 3d. Neither of my infantry could get into position to attack. As I held AMBUSH and ARMOR ASSAULT and BEL I hoped I would be able to follow up any success this turn. But I whiffed on the arty and only got 1 hit on the baseline panzer.

Johan then swung his 1 fig panzer off the hill onto the bridge. His arty then got a hit and flag on my tank. I played AMBUSH on his 1 fig panzer and missed but he missed right back. Not doing more damage last turn and missing the AMBUSH this turn really hurt me as with my ARMOR ASSAULT I may have been able to really cause some damage in the center. My center cavalry then charges the 1 fig panzer and kills it but then its 1d attack vs the baseline infantry misses.

My tank then gets 3 hits on that same infantry -- the series of what might have beens continues for me.

A German pincer move ends my center offensive as a panzer picks off my 1 fig tank and gets 2 hits on my cavalry while my elite tank is now down to 1 fig.

My center cavalry charges and wipes out the 1 fig infantry and gets 1 hit on the baseline arty while my left tank does the same to the arty over there. I have a 3 to 2 lead.

But a German INF ASSAULT kills off my cutoff 2 fig cav and the elite tank too &#8211; now I trail 3 to 4.

The end game sees a left cavalry suffer 2 hits -- the cav then uses BEL and gets 3 hits vs a German infantry in the ford and the cav then falls back. It is then hit by a lone arty shot and then missed by a plane.

After missing the baseline 1 fig arty on my left, I then use a LEFT RECON to move my 1 fig cav out of strafing range of the ME-109 but Johan uses CA to bring on another plane and kills off my cav to win 3 to 5.

I felt I was close to winning but could not get a key roll when I needed it.

With the air rules in use, it forces the Allies to go on the offensive against a superior force as if they do not the strafing from the German planes will surely spell their doom. But having mainly cav the Allies are at a distinct disadvantage if they try this. The fortified infantry are nothing more than targets which leaves the French with but 6 units to try and attack with -- that will fail more often than not.

Germans assault aggressively with tanks. Early German medals are won by plinking away with tanks at long range. Then the Germans assaulted across the river. A fall of good gray cards, including 2 armored assaults, allowed the Germans to take the victory with 5 medals to 2. The French managed to destroy two armored units, however.

Another well-fought battle, this time the dice were just enough in the Allies favor that victory was theirs. I think this battle is pretty well balanced, although the Allies need to try and defend the river crossing, which can hamper the Axis advance.

This was a well fought battle, until the end when an errant "Behind Enemy Lines" secured two VPs for the Axis, it looked like the Allies might hold out, even against the Luftwaffe. The French Cavalry were an interesting unit to deal with, especially in the constricted terrain.